Congressman Connie Mack, the front-runner to win the Republican nomination to challenge Democrat incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in November, unveiled his team in Miami-Dade on Tuesday.

This team will produce the largest Republican primary voting bloc in the state, and I am excited and grateful for the energy these community leaders are bringing to our campaign, Mack said. This will have a huge impact on our primary voter turnout effort.

While there are five months to go until the 2012 presidential election, the gloves are coming off as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney hit the airwaves and go online to rip into each other.

On Tuesday, the Obama team launched a new television ad hitting the airwaves in key battleground states -- including Florida -- that attacks Romneys record during his tenure as governor of Massachusetts. The ad attempts to play a little political jujitsu, taking Romneys attacks and turning them against him, slamming the Republicans record on running up government debt and on job creation.

The Republican establishment continues to rally behind U.S. Rep. Connie Mack to take on Democrat incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in November. On Monday, U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney announced that he was backing Mack.

Tony Boselli, best know for his stellar career as an offensive linesman for the Jacksonville Jaguars in the NFL, is growing more active politically on the First Coast and, on Monday, he endorsed former Rep. Aaron Bean in an interesting GOP primary for a state Senate seat.

Aaron is the conservative candidate we need to represent Jacksonville in the Florida Senate, said Boselli. Aaron knows the importance of strengthening education and creating jobs for our local communities. He has a proven track record of effective, fiscally responsible leadership in Tallahassee.

Rep. Mike Weinstein, R-Jacksonville, is in one of the most intriguing Republican primaries in Florida as he runs against former Rep. Aaron Bean for a state Senate seat on the First Coast. Weinstein unveiled the support of one of the leading social conservatives in the Legislature on Monday when Rep. Charles Van Zant, R-Palatka, announced that he was behind him.

U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., announced on Thursday night that he was backing former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts for the presidency. Paul had been a supporter of his father -- U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas -- but Romney has now clinched enough delegates to win the Republican nomination.

While he may have lost out to Mitt Romney in the battle for the Republican nomination to challenge Barack Obama, Rick Santorum said on Friday that he intends to remain politically active and will do all he can to defeat the Democrat incumbent in November.

Santorum, who surprised the political world by winning 11 states in his battle with Romney, launched a new organization dubbed Patriot Voices on Friday. The former senator from Pennsylvania insists that his new group will help rally and organize 1 million conservatives to be active in the political process.

A poll from Public Policy Polling (PPP), a firm with connections to prominent Democrats, released on Thursday, shows U.S. Rep. Connie Mack with a solid lead over his rivals -- former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, former U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon and businessman and retired Army officer Mike McCalister -- for the Republican nomination to challenge Democrat incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson. Unlike other polls, the survey shows Nelson beating Mack and LeMieux by 13 percent and McCalister and Weldon by 14 percent.

While Wyman Duggan dropped out of the race this week to back Rep. Mike Weinstein, R-Jacksonville, another Republican entered the race to replace term-limited Sen. Steve Wise, R-Jacksonville -- prominent attorneyW.C. Gentry who has served on the Duval County School Board -- but then quickly announced he would not run.

Gentry filed to run for the Senate seat on Thursday, but then announced that he was not going to actually run as it would require him to vacate his School Board seat.

From his perch on the Foreign Relations Committee, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on Thursday called for regime change in Syria. Taking to the pages of the Wall Street Journal, Rubio called for the U.S. to step up and lead an aggressive international campaign to hasten Bashar al-Assads departure from power.

Rubio weighed in on assorted international efforts concerning the Assad regime.